Day 33 ~ Las Vegas and Hoover Dam

Day 33 ~ Las Vegas and Hoover Dam

Drove most of the day to get out of California and into Nevada. 

This was the scenery from the backseat of the car:

 

 

Some kind of Solar Collection Facility

Whew!  Las Vegas was a total crapbag.  Yuck!  The KOA was part of some kind of old remodeled casino/gambling hall/hotel.  And a large asphalt parking lot for campers. No picnic table.  No fire ring.  No trees. Just asphalt. The restrooms were filthy dirty and probably not cleaned since the 60’s.  The icing on the cake was the temperature was 130 degrees.  Yep.  That is right!  We didn’t even know our car thermometer would go that high!

 

 

We just dropped the trailer at the campground and didn’t even try to put it up in that heat.  We went on to Hoover Dam, hoping we weren’t too late for the tour.  The Hoover Dam thing was kind of weird too.  It was just a simple thing:  There is a dam.  There is a tour.  Yet, the people running the program…..made it very confusing……We had trouble getting our bearings here.  I didn’t really feel like we got 130.00 worth of fun or interest out of this attraction, but I do think the boys in our family were more interested in it than the girls.  Lots of physical science involved. 

Discussing the way transformers work.....

We parked the car.  We watched a movie.  We read the exhibits.  We viewed the dam from the observation deck.  We took the 120.00 tour.  The end. 

The Visitor Center Overlook

The New Bridge Over the River

Power Grid

This Picture was taken in Extreme Heat

Road Over the Dam

If you can see the vents in the dam, that is where we looked out of the back.

 

The tour was down into the dam to see the massive generators that pump the water and electricity to 4 states. 

Then we took the extended tour to go into the dam, which was kind of interesting.  We actually looked out the vent holes in the front of the dam.  It was built in the art deco style of the day. 

Secret Corridors

 

Harrison was too tall for the tunnel.

Fast Feet in the Tunnel

Emergency Stairway Down

Emergency Stairway Up

Statues from the Percy Jackson Book

 

 

 Natalie was very eager to take the dam tour because one of her favorite book series, Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, characters went to the Hoover Dam in the story. 

Back of the Dam

Hoover Dam

Walkway on top of the Dam

 

Lake Mead - Created Behind Hoover Dam

 

The tour guide, bless his little heart, was  a twin to Rick Moranis from Ghost Busters……

We could have taken better pictures of Hoover Dam straight on if we would have parked and walked up a mile to a Vista Point.  Frankly, at 130 degrees, my heart wasn't in it.  I usually want to do everything, but not this time.

We decided to drive around for a while because it was too hot to go back and cook and set up camp. 

However it was virtually impossible to find a decent place to eat in the part of Las Vegas where we were.  Dirty, gross city.  We went into 3 McDonalds, but none were acceptable in which to eat.  It was that bad.  So we went on to drive through the Las Vegas Strip because Mike saw on his GPS that there was a Chipotle on the Strip.  It was just a construction site when we got there.  The strip was, of course, different from the rest of the city, but still very tacky. We could have eaten there, but weren't dressed for it at all. Plus, we would have to figure out something for parking..... With all the stop lights, we had wasted the whole night.  We should have just gone swimming at the campsite.  By the time we made our way back towards camp, it was 11:00 PM and still no dinner!  I saw a sign for an In and Out Burger.  My friend from California had told us to eat there because it was better than McDonalds.  So we ate at In and Out Burger that night.  Not bad at all!  Thanks, Chastity! Mike likes the old fashioned diner look, so he was definitely on board for this eating place!

 

Caesar's Palace 

Back to the campground……the heat had broken to 115 degrees by now. 

I didn’t feel like I should let Natalie walk by herself to the restrooms, so we went together.  There was a key in code to enter the restrooms.  When we got to the door, two men were trying to get into the woman's restroom.  They didn’t speak English (There are a LOT of European people here in the National Parks and KOA’s with rented travel trailers.)  I don’t know if they couldn’t read that it said “woman” or if they were up to no good.  When they moved away from the door, I entered the code and let Natalie in.  They continued to stare at us strangely and not go away.  So I made eye contact and shut the door in their faces.  “Good-bye!”

Back to the camper….we slept on very hotly heated beds with neon signs flashing and glowing all night.  In the morning, Mike said that we must be in hell, since we have never been in a place this hot before with so many sinners. 

We shook the dust from that city off our boots and headed to Bryce Canyon.  We were eager to get back to the National Parks and out of the dirty cities.  If you offered me free tickets to Las Vegas tomorrow, I would probably decline them.

Tomorrow:  Bryce Canyon!